AMD Launches “VISION” Program to Enhance Buying Experience

Posted on September 11, 2009 12:30 PM by Rob Williams

I’m not sure how I missed this yesterday, but AMD released a brand-new initiative to help consumers figure out which PC based on AMD components best suits them. Similar in some regards to how Intel denotes a PC’s capabilities with a 1 – 5 star system, AMD simplifies things just a bit further to have three possible grades, all based around what they call “AMD VISION”.

For basic PCs, a badge that simply says “AMD VISION” will be seen. This badge will signify that the PC is capable of handling all of the basic tasks one would expect from their PC, from e-mail and surfing the web, to listening to music and viewing photos/videos online. For notebooks, it also means long battery-life. The next step up is AMD VISION Premium, which bolsters the multi-media capabilities all-around. Such a PC would be great for ripping CDs, playing games, using a webcam to chat to family, editing photos, converting your videos to play on a mobile player and for enjoying Blu-ray movies.

Then there’s AMD VISION Ultimate, which is for high-end PCs capable of delivering an experience that the other VISION models would simply be unable to. In addition to the requirements the other VISION models would have, Ultimate adds the ability to record live TV, play online games, edit and mix your music, allow for advanced photo-editing and creation of podcasts (yes, this is actually listed) and also creating and editing HD movies. An “Ultimate” PC would also allow the user to “megatask” (multi-task is too tame of a term, apparently).

While I think these VISION badges may help consumers with their purchases, I’m not entirely sold on the fact that how this program is structured is perfect. After all, the only way a consumer would understand these badges would be to do research before-hand, and honestly, I think that the goal of any program like this should be to aide consumers who haven’t done their research.

Intel’s star system is, to me, a bit better, but I almost think that a little bit more is needed. When a consumer sees a badge like this on PCs at the store, they should be able to tell right away whether it’s for them or not. I also consider the fact that the bottom VISION denotation doesn’t have a term applied to it at all… it’s just “AMD VISION”, rather than something like, “AMD VISION Basic”. With no term applied, consumers may look for a VISION badge and automatically assume it’s full-featured, when in this case, it wouldn’t be. Adding the word “Basic” would definitely give a clear message about the PC’s capabilities.

What are your thoughts on this? What would YOU change about the VISION program, or do you think AMD’s on the right track here? Let us know in the forums!

Notebook PCs with VISION Technology from AMD are expected to be widely available on retail shelves and online during the holiday buying season timed to the release of the Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft. Complementing VISION, Windows 7 supports DirectX 10, Direct X10.1, and Direct X11 for richer 3D detail on games and other media apps, and a Unified Video Decoder to free up the CPU so that users can have a superior visual and more responsive computing experience while converting video for use on hand held devices. This last activity is greatly simplified and much more rapid with the new Drag and Drop feature of Windows 7.